NPD: HTC was leading U.S. smartphone vendor in Q4 2010

As part of their CTIA package, NPD group posted some positive numbers for Android and its vendors.

Taiwan’s HTC overtook Apple (AAPL) and RIM (RIMM) to become the leading manufacturer of US smartphones in Q4 2010 according to a report by NPD Group.

HTC’s share of the US Market crossed 20% while BlackBerry and Apple slipped to 19%. Motorola(MMI) rounded out the top four at 16%. Samsung, LG, Nokia(NOK), HP/Palm (HPQ) and other vendors split the remaining 26% of the market.

While the majority of HTC’s sales came from Google (GOOG) Android devices, they did debut some Microsoft (MSFT) Windows Phone 7 devices at the end of 2010, which may have put them over the top. Also, HTC likely sold some legacy older OS devices like Treos and Windows Mobile 6.5 phones.

Smartphones as a whole represented over half of the US phone market which is up from 31% in 2009. That half of the market pie translates to 73% of the revenue pie. The average selling price of a smartphone was $152/device which was flat year over year.

Apple still led the pack in specific device sales over 2010 with the iPhone 4 (16 and 32GB varieties combined) taking the top spot and its older iPhone 3GS taking #2. Full list of top 10 phones follows:

Top 10 Mobile Phones — 2010

1 Apple iPhone 4

2 Apple iPhone 3Gs

3 RIM BlackBerry Curve 8500

4 Motorola Droid

5 Samsung Intensity

6 LG Cosmos

7 HTC EVO 4G

8 LG Accolade

9 Motorola Droid X

10 Apple iPhone 3G